Media Contact:
Claire Hermann, chermann@earthworksaction.org
Background: Yesterday evening, President Trump issued “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” an executive order that allows mines for gold, copper, uranium, and potash, along with energy transition minerals (often called critical minerals), to seek expedited permitting review and public subsidies. The order encourages the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to rescind certain disclosures mining companies who apply for public subsidies provide to investors. It also directs the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) Chair to recommend policy changes allowing more waste dumps, roads, pipelines, transmission lines, and other activities to support mining on public lands. The order expands the reach of Defense Production Act subsidies and other public financing for mineral processing and refining on or near military bases.
Statement by Raquel Dominguez, Circular Economy Policy Advocate, Earthworks
“Minerals processing is an extremely polluting process. Building and operating these facilities on bases would not contain their impacts to a military base. Impacts would spread downwind and downstream, affecting nearby military families and surrounding communities and their ecosystems.
“Moving mineral processing and refining onto military bases will not make US residents safer, and it will not make the world more peaceful. It certainly will not alleviate the climate crisis, since renewable energy technologies require many of the same minerals the military uses.
“Instead of bringing polluting industries onto military bases, Congress and the Defense Department should take action to correct past harms and reduce the need for mined minerals by implementing circular economy policies.”
Statement by Aaron Mintzes, Senior Policy Counsel
“This executive order serves corporate mining interests alone. It facilitates the large-scale sell-off of public lands, encourages riskier mining investments with public money, and lessens protections for mining-impacted communities and the environment.
“This executive order weakens transparency disclosures publicly traded mining companies provide to their investors and encourages those companies to apply for government subsidies. Mining is already a risky business, and this move gambles public money on potentially riskier mines. Rather than remove investor transparency, the Administration should instead help strengthen mineral supply chain due diligence worldwide.
“The right path forward for the United States is to modernize our mining laws while reducing demand for newly-mined minerals. We should first source the metals we need through recycling, reuse, and mineral substitution.”